We have changed the name of the Dhammic-Free-For-All Forum to the Open Dhamma Forum.viewforum.php?f=16It is the same forum with the same topics. We felt that the name change would reflect our vision for the forum being the venue for respectful and friendly yet forthright and robust discussions.I hope you like the name change.kind regards,

Ben

PS: Please take a moment to re-acquaint yourself with the special guidelinesfor the Open Dhamma Forum:

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

If you have asked me of the origination of unease, then I shall explain it to you in accordance with my understanding: Whatever various forms of unease there are in the world, They originate founded in encumbering accumulation. (Pārāyanavagga)

Exalted in mind, just open and clearly aware, the recluse trained in the ways of the sages:One who is such, calmed and ever mindful, He has no sorrows! -- Udana IV, 7

"And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting oneself one protects others? By the pursuit, development, and cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness. It is in such a way that by protecting oneself one protects others.

"And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting others one protects oneself? By patience, harmlessness, goodwill, and sympathy. It is in such a way that by protecting others one protects oneself.- Sedaka Sutta [SN 47.19]

I kinda liked the rough-and-tumble no-holds-barred trial-by-combat implications of the old name, even while thinking it wasn't a particularly Buddhist way of discovering the truth. I wonder if the name change will encourage Right Speech?

I have to say that I think the name change has affected the "Open Dhamma" forum. Seems to me like there is much less discussion there as of late. The one good thing about the name "Dhammic-Free-For-All" is that it really caught people’s attention which probably had an effect on the frequency of topics there. I guess now they are more spread out amongst the other forums. Although it has seemed quiet on dhammawheel in general recently, so maybe that is why.

My observation has been the volume of discussion goes through waves. There are quiet periods and busy periods. I am happy if we have fewer postings of a higher quality than volume for its own sake. kind regards,

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725